


Nett (Cut Old Bonds And Sew New Ones)

by ChaosWriting



Series: Bursting At The Seams [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Consequences, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Marinette-centric, me: .... oh look, me: marinette with an undercut would be awesome, me: what about a leather jacket, ml salt, there is implied lesbians but i only realized once i beta read it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 23:08:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21044306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaosWriting/pseuds/ChaosWriting
Summary: Sometimes, actions have consequences.And Nett-Not-Marinette thinks of herself for once.





	Nett (Cut Old Bonds And Sew New Ones)

**Author's Note:**

> I have a Miraculous Ladybug centered Tumblr now! Find me on thebeesworkforthebourgeois.

Nett-Not-Marinette feels terrified. She channels her inner Ladybug as she walks through the halls of school, head held high, not letting any of her anxiety slip through. Out of the corner of her eye she spots someone trying to trip her, but she is too late to react and her foot catches on theirs. She doesn’t fall though, her new boots giving her the extra balance needed to stay upright, even when nearly thrown off balance. She stops walking and turns her head.

The person who tried to trip her doesn’t go to her class -good, she doesn’t think she could keep it together as well as she does now if she had to look at a familiar face, her heart is beating loudly in her chest as is-, but she does recognize them. She raises an eyebrow, and the other student looks away.

Marinette -Nett- faces forward again and continues walking. Tikki encouragingly pats her side from her new spot in Nett’s faux-leather jacket. She isn’t alone in this, she has Tikki. Tikki-mentor-friend is reminding her to keep her breathing even. Tikki is reminding her she can do this, that she doesn’t need them, her former friends.

She’s late to class, but she doesn’t run, she is walking confidently, the boots making a loud noise against the floor with each step.

At the classroom door she hesitates. “Tikki?” She asks, her hand resting on the handle. “What if they’ll hate me more?” More. More. More.

More than they already do, since Rossi told them Marinette pushed her down the stairs. Since liar-Rossi told them Marinette had threatened her. Since they began excluding Marinette from their activities and hangouts.

“Then they’ll miss out on all the great you bring.” Nett’s breathing evens out again.

“Thank you, Tikki.” It’s a familiar phrase she has been saying for a while now, but in the last few days she has been saying it more often, because Tikki has been helping her with all the extra stress -stress from Lila and the loss of friends, stress from being Ladybug, stress from guardian training, stress from the bakery and her home life-.

Head held high, Nett, not the Marinette they abandoned, walks into the classroom for the first time.

The air is already tense when she enters , and it becomes even tenser when they notice her. Conversation doesn’t fall silent, because there was no conversations taking place. She doesn’t look at the class and walks over ms. Bustier’s desk, who hasn’t started the lesson yet, for reasons unknown to Nett.

She removes her bag from where it is attached to her shoulder and places it on the desk, minding ms. Bustier’s stuff just enough that nothing falls off of the desk, but a few papers still get wrinkled and a few pens roll away a bit. She is not ready for the bigger steps, like knocking stuff of her teachers desk and leaving it on the ground, like a cat with no regard for the rules.

Ms. Bustier is watching her, too confused to be angry. Marinette always says sorry for being late, Marinette usually tries to sneak past ms. Bustier. She never has so blatantly and uncaringly announced her lateness to everyone as she has done just now.

She pulls a folder out of her bag, and pulls a paper out of that folder. The folder itself is bright pink, in a way that goes well with black, but also hurts your eyes to look at. She places the paper onto ms. Bustier’s desk and zips her bag back up, she swings it over one shoulder.

Tikki’s weight in the pocket of her jacket, and her soft pats encourage Nette to keep walking and not break down crying, like she really feels like down. Her toes curl in her boots. She is fine. Totally fine.

“Mari?” And Nett’s head sharply turns to Alya, who looks genuinely worried for her the first time in ages, and again, Nett nearly caves. But she reminds herself of all Alya has said and done. And Nett doesn’t answer, she raises an eyebrow, in the same way she did to the other student, earlier, as if she doesn’t know Alya Césaire, which is technically the truth, she thought she knew Césaire, but she was proven wrong when a practical stranger was picked over sweet-as-sugar Marinette.

It doesn’t take long for traitor-Césaire to look away in shame, and Nett smiles, victoriously -viciously?-.  
She goes up the steps to her seat in the back and sits down. Her backpack hits the floor with a thud, and Caline failedteacher-Bustier seemingly has recovered enough to ask Nette about the paper.

“Marinette, what is this?” She asks, and she nearly stumbles over her words, not recovered from her surprise quite that much.

“It is-” Says Nett. “My resignation as class president.” Now the whispering starts and Nett’s anxiety is back. She tries a few of her breathing exercises, discreetly.

“Alright, then we will be voting for a new class president tomorrow.” Ms. Bustier seems a little shaken, Nett notes, but so does the rest of the class.

Everyone is looking at her, but as soon as she looks back, they avert their eyes. And she realize why as soon as she spots liar-Rossi’s seat. It’s empty. They’re all looking away in shame, except Chloé Bourgeois, who has the biggest grin on her face, and Sabrina Raincomprix, who gives a small, timid wave when they make eye contact.

“I’m taking her down.” Chloé Bourgeois had said, after somehow managing to sneak into Marinette’s room, past Marinette’s parents, sitting in the desk chair.

And Nett would have said “Ok.” And she would have ignored Chloé Bourgeois, but she wasn’t really Nett back then, she was broken-Marinette, trying to keep smiling, and Chloé Bourgeois had become her ally, and she had been forgiven.

And forgiven-Chloé had chewed Marinette out for forgiving her, because she didn’t deserve it, and the rest of the class wasn’t going to deserve it when they came crawling back to sweet-as-sugar-doormat-Marinette.

It’s Sabrina who calls her Nett the first time, the same way she calls Chloé “Chlo”. And it sticks because it feels right. Marinette was weak and boy crazy, and Nett is strong and has a not-friend-yes-ally squad who has her back.

And her allies don’t sit with her, because Chloé Bourgeois likes the front, likes the sense of importance, and loyal-Sabrina likes Chloé, and Nett likes the back a lot more than Marinette did.

She can watch everyone without causing suspicion, and there is no need to watch her back for paper airplanes and spitballs and the occasional gum. And she can see people turn around to look at her, and she can glare them into cowering. An alert on the Ladyblog -a site no one respects anymore- is posted. They think she is an Akuma.

“Scarier than Ladybug.” Chloé Bourgeois had said one night, when the hotel had been too cold and she had taken a driver to Nett’s place, and Nett had smiled and patted the spot next to her on the bed, and instead of sleeping they had talked.

Nett considers neither Chloé Bourgeois, who pulled her out of the abyss that she was falling into, nor Sabrina Raincomprix, who gave her a new name and told her the first kind words she had heard in weeks, her friends. Friends betrayed her, but maybe they can become friend-and-ally, like Chat Noir is to Ladybug and Ladybug hopes she is to Chat Noir.

And Nett leaves Césaire’s messages on read, and Lahiffe’s and Agreste’s and everyone else’s and it’s a relief. The stress from all those unopened messages isn’t there anymore, and she is not obligated to read them. And class goes by like a breeze-turned storm, the whispering turning into regular talking, and Nett is sketching in the back because she finished the worksheet already, because now she has 2-technically-4-allies and 2-technically-friends and now she has no class president duties and no “friend” duties where people abuse her kindness, because she has very little kindness left to give and Ladybug is the one who gives it away, not Nett or Marinette.

And after class Césaire tries to compliment her on her newly short, undercut hair, spiked with gel and Nett asks her, without any encouragement from loyal-Tikki-mentor-friend or forgiven-ally-Chloé, or loyal-kind-Sabrina; “What gives you the idea I want to hear your opinion?”

And pretender-Césaire says that it’s because they’re best friends and Nette’s face turns into disgust, and she moves a finger to her left temple, almost as if thinking, but it is where Alya-now-Césaire had scratched her just last week, and where it’s still not fully healed and might scar and her mask would only just cover it when transformed.

And Nette says. “I don’t think you ever considered me your best friend. I think you considered me convenient.”

And Nett walks away, because her allies-not-friends have a spa day planned, and maybe they will bake something later, while stubborn-caring-careful-Chloé fuzzes over their clothing and orders all three of them matching custom aprons, but sits in the back because she doesn’t want to get dirty, but where she will spend ages on creating fondant flowers.

And maybe excited-kind-sweet-as-sugar-Sabrina will forget to set a timer, and abandoned-recovering-Nett will affectionately roll her eyes and gauge how far along the cupcakes are.

And maybe Chloé will complain about the calories but will eat and enjoy anyways, because her friends made them.

Lila Rossi handed the class scissors, and they cut ties with Marinette, making it unmendable.

Trying-to-be-good-Chloé and trying-to-be-assertive-Sabrina handed broken-abandoned-alone-Marinette not only scissors, but also the rest of her sewing kit.

And Nett cut part of her name and most of her class. And she mended words to others names so she remember. And she creates from scratch, relations and possible friendships.


End file.
